Candling eggs. Are they viable?

[nikchick]

This will probably be the only time we let our broody set on eggs. I just wanted to experience it once. I considered buying an incubator and eggs, but I worry about the roo to hen ratio since its pretty much a guarantee that our broody will end up hatching a few males anyway. I'm lucky enough to have a farm store nearby that stocks pullets from cackle hatchery year round. That's how I ended up with my brooder filled with 14 EE and SLW pullets.

 

[GitaBooks]

Thanks so much!

 

[CherriesBrood]

This will probably be the only time we let our broody set on eggs. I just wanted to experience it once. I considered buying an incubator and eggs, but I worry about the roo to hen ratio since its pretty much a guarantee that our broody will end up hatching a few males anyway. I'm lucky enough to have a farm store nearby that stocks pullets from cackle hatchery year round. That's how I ended up with my brooder filled with 14 EE and SLW pullets.

Yes, but that's the chance you have to take when hatching eggs. You would not believe this, but in my last batch I only hatched 6 eggs, 2 didn't hatch, but out of the four that did, three turned out to be cockerels, and one a pullet! Now that rarely happens, but it happened to me luckily my feed store takes roosters, so I gave two to them and kept one for breeding along with his sister. I called his sister Hope. I hoped that hope was a pullet.

GitaBooks~
Your welcome
Is there anything you would like to know in particular?

 

[GitaBooks]

I have a few questions that I could love some help with:

What is the best way to keep humidity? I tried to get it up to 60% for hatching and no matter how much water I added it still stayed pretty low. The chick hatched without problem, could the hygrometer be broken?

How often should you turn eggs a day for best hatching success?

How long does it usually take from the first pipping to the end of all the fertile eggs hatching?

Have you ever had a rotten egg explode?


Thanks for any advice you have!

 

[CherriesBrood]

I have a few questions that I could love some help with:

What is the best way to keep humidity? I tried to get it up to 60% for hatching and no matter how much water I added it still stayed pretty low. The chick hatched without problem, could the hygrometer be broken?

How often should you turn eggs a day for best hatching success?

How long does it usually take from the first pipping to the end of all the fertile eggs hatching?

Have you ever had a rotten egg explode?


Thanks for any advice you have!

Well you have to make sure that it's completely closed and it doesn't have any leaks, that's a big factor. It can also depend on the type of incubator you have, I have a mini advanced brineasa, and the water container is positioned in the middle, right under the fan, and the fan is what helps to get humidity.

Every 3 hours, or 180 mins. You don't want to do it to much because that can jiggle the baby, and it might interfere with the development process, every 3 hours is how often the moms turn their eggs. And you wouldn't want to do it to little, because they can get stuck on to the side of the shell that's sitting on the bottom.

The longest time that I've heard of is 2 days. What mine usually do is one will hatch early in the morning, and then the others will hatch through out the day, until 6pm at the latest.

Hehe, and no I have not thankfully, but I have had some die that I have had to discard, you can tell if they have died if their is a big blood ring in the middle when candling the egg, but I'm sure you probably know that.

And your welcome I still don't know everything about chickens, it's a learning process from own experience and research.
Im planning on putting some Buff Orpingtons in our incubator tomorrow, and am just so excited! Even tho I have done it a lot it's still so exciting and nerve racking every single time!

 

[GitaBooks]

Thanks so much for the advice! its really helpful.

 

[nikchick]

Bad news. Went outside to check on the flock just a minute ago. One egg (the last sumatra/RIR mix egg) was cracked and the side of the shell had a large blob of blood and goo smeared around the crack. I removed the egg and finished cracking the shell since it was obviously not a viable chick (and the smell. I can't describe it). It was a beautiful tiny black chick, perfectly formed and still wrapped in the membrane. Not sure how all that came out and the chick was still inside of it, but there was also quiet a bit of liquid, too. All we have left now are RIR/BR mix eggs under our broody sumatra. I'm starting to believe the night she was locked out for a few hours got the eggs.

 

[GitaBooks]

Bad news. Went outside to check on the flock just a minute ago. One egg (the last sumatra/RIR mix egg) was cracked and the side of the shell had a large blob of blood and goo smeared around the crack. I removed the egg and finished cracking the shell since it was obviously not a viable chick (and the smell. I can't describe it). It was a beautiful tiny black chick, perfectly formed and still wrapped in the membrane. Not sure how all that came out and the chick was still inside of it, but there was also quiet a bit of liquid, too. All we have left now are RIR/BR mix eggs under our broody sumatra. I'm starting to believe the night she was locked out for a few hours got the eggs.

I'm sorry to hear that.

Don't give up yet, though! Some may have survived.

 

[CherriesBrood]

Your welcome gitabooks, happy to help

And nikchcik, I'm sorry. It may have been a rotten egg and have exploded, you may want to candle the other eggs and search for a big blood ring around the egg, if you find any or ones that you are not sure about please take a picture of it candled and post it on here so that I can see it. I don't think that they have all died, I do think that a lot are still alive. How long was she off the nest though?

 

[nikchick]

I'm not exactly sure how long she was off the nest because I don't know what time she got off, just the time I let her back in (after dark). The other eggs we Candled had movement in them on day 18, but I was only able to get a few of the BR eggs to check. She is still sitting on about 5 eggs that I can see. She's not very nice right now and has a fierce peck and growl when I try to raise her to see under her. I'm not sure how long the egg had been there like that, but it stank like nothing Ive ever smelled before.